And so, like a particularly unpleasant strain of fungal disease, Cambridge South's Mens 2nd XI are back. Back again. You can tell a friend, if you like, although I can't imagine they'd be interested.

The bearpit of East Division 4NW is still a fortnight away, but some preparation was called for, particularly as several 'regular' players hadn't unpacked their hockey gear since April (it was a good job we've at least got new shirts this year). Added to that, Jon Mann admitted he hadn't played a competitive game for four and a half years and Jamie Inshaw had only moved to Cambridge on Tuesday and hadn't brought any shoes with him. At least the fact we had no subs meant that plenty of practice was on offer.

I'm still unsure what a 'sex panther' is, or why Simon Ta needed to advertise one on his person. He's a curious character, but I guess every team needs to have one. Once his outfit had been suitably criticised by the full squad, we could begin our gentlest of gentle warm-ups. It was pleasing to see that Anns had lost none of his old sharpness and could reach not only the car-park but even the tennis court without having to stop for a breather.

The game itself was predictably scrappy, as each side decided to charge around like mad things for twenty minutes before remembering that a match is seventy minutes long. Shin was much to the fore, buzzing around with all the energy that comes from eating steaks for breakfast, and Owen was looking mighty threatening without actually finding the killer touch. One early wobble in from the right and upright shot off the reverse thudded into a post and minutes later it took a marvellous flying save to deny him again. The frenzy was jack-knifing hither and thither across the pitch though, with our opponents from Bury alternating aimless hits off the sideline with threatening bursts forward. When their goalie called a time-out to re-arrange his kit, a collective sigh of relief was heartily wheezed.

I was later told that Matt Kern scored our opener, having wandered in from left half, past/through a couple of challenges and slotting the ball into the bottom right corner. Admittedly it was Matt that told me, but I have had the details independently verified. A nice goal. Well done, Matt.

Our lead did not, sadly, last very long. There didn't seem to be too much alarm as one of the away side's collection of rangy teenagers galloped into the circle. Oh, he's going for one of those reverse stick, frying pan grip thingies? Pah. Don't worry, this could go anywhere. The thing with 'anywhere' is that one of those places is lacing into the top left hand corner, not even stopping to give Parky a wave as it whistled past his left ear. The one upshot of this was that said rangy teenagers then spent the remainder of the game trying to replicate it, to much less effect.

As the game entered the second period, the Bury ranks were further bolstered by a couple of lads from the previous game, now full of our pizzas and intent on taking the win back with them up the A14. Meanwhile, we remained grateful that we had no subs to disrupt our rhythm and eat into our match-fee to game-time ratio. Walshy and Jon were playing some sensible stuff in the middle, releasing Ali and Jamie down the right to good effect. A series of short corners followed and from one, a trademark Shin drag-loop made it's way inside the left-hand post. From then on, it was a matter of manning the barricades and repelling all Suffolk comers. This we managed, although not without the minor complication of Steve having to ably save a decent penalty stroke.

Match won, we could happily head into the changing rooms to be warmly dribbled on, before retiring to Cantabs for several lager shandies and some of the biggest vegetarian pizzas I have ever seen. More of the same please (only with meat on, Dave).